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Ron Brachman Joins the Jacobs Technion-Cornell Institute at Cornell Tech as the New Director

NEW YORK – Cornell Tech today
announced that Ron Brachman, a computer scientist who is an internationally
recognized authority on artificial intelligence, will join the campus as the
new Director of the Joan & Irwin Jacobs Technion-Cornell Institute. The Jacobs Institute
embodies the academic partnership between Cornell University and the Technion
Israel-Institute of Technology at Cornell Tech, with an emphasis on moving beyond
traditional structures of academia to offer a global perspective on research,
education, technology transfer, commercialization and entrepreneurship.

As Director, Brachman will lead
the Jacobs Institute’s strategic vision as it continues to grow its non-traditional,
multidisciplinary, cutting-edge faculty research, degree programs, and the
Runway startup postdoctoral program. Brachman will become a member of the
Computer Science faculty at Cornell University and will succeed Adam Shwartz,
who returns to the Technion Israel-Institute of Technology as Senior Executive
Vice President. The leadership of the Jacobs Institute is shared by the
Technion and Cornell, with the directorship rotating between the two
universities. As part of this rotation, Shwartz will become the Chair of the
Jacobs Institute Board of Directors.

“We are very excited to welcome
Ron to the campus. His distinguished research record, industry and
team-building career and multi-faceted experience developing new research
initiatives will continue the great work at the Jacobs Institute as we broaden
and grow,” said Cornell Tech Dean Dan Huttenlocher. “The Jacobs Institute serves as a sandbox of experimentation
at Cornell Tech, with the growing success of its Runway startup program and
groundbreaking research in the fields of connective media, health tech,
cybersecurity and more.”

“I’m so proud of the Jacobs
Institute’s growth and success over the past three years, launching a
first-of-its-kind multidisciplinary dual-degree program — and seeing its first
graduates — and commercializing impactful, deep
research through the Runway startup postdocs program,” said Adam Shwartz, outgoing Director of the
Jacobs Technion-Cornell Institute. “Ron’s expertise creating and leading
high-level research teams and his work developing successful new initiatives at
top industry and government organizations makes him the perfect choice to grow
the Institute.”

“The Jacobs Institute is an
amazing, unique undertaking, and I am extremely excited about the opportunity
to lead it in its next phase of growth and groundbreaking innovation in
education, research, and impact. Under the leadership of Adam Shwartz, the
Jacobs Institute is already leading the way in showing how academia can drive
real-world innovation,” said Brachman.“I am
eager to build on this work in developing the Jacobs Institute’s world-class
dual degree programs and innovative approach to research and industry
partnership.”

Brachman was Yahoo’s Chief
Scientist and Head of Yahoo Labs, where he oversaw all of Yahoo’s science
activities worldwide, including teams in Haifa and New York, providing
leadership at the intersection of research, applied science and academic
partnerships. He was one of the founders of Yahoo Research and the creator of
Yahoo's Academic Relations group, and throughout his ten years at Yahoo helped
drive the creation of experimental initiatives and hired and managed top
talent. As the Director of the Information Processing Technology Office at
DARPA, Brachman established the Cognitive Systems initiative, which developed
the technology that led to the creation of Siri. At Bell Labs and AT&T
Labs, he drove the overall vision and technical direction of multiple research
labs and built world-class groups in AI, Machine Learning, HCI, Security, and
other critical technology areas. He has won multiple awards, has served as
President of AAAI, currently serves on the Board of the Computing Research
Association, and is a Fellow of ACM, IEEE, and AAAI. He also advises Segovia
Technology, a New York startup that builds software systems for bringing cash
payments to the world’s poorest people, working to eliminate poverty in emerging
economies and provide humanitarian relief.

“Throughout the search process, we
were consistently impressed with Ron’s dedication to breaking new ground, both
when creating new partnerships at DARPA and Yahoo Labs and in his research,”
said Michael I. Kotlikoff, Provost of
Cornell University. “Cornell University is proud to partner with the
Technion through the Jacobs Institute at Cornell Tech, and I’m confident that
Ron will take the Institute to new levels.”

"Ron worked closely with
Israeli research teams, and navigated complex organizations. I trust that he
will be able to bring the Technion-Cornell partnership to new levels, and
leverage the power of the two universities, and of the two cultures, to move
Jacobs Institute as a leader for the digital age: fast moving, flexible and
innovative,” said Professor Moshe Sidi,
Current Senior Executive Vice President of the Technion Institute.

The Jacobs Technion-Cornell
Institute at Cornell Tech is the academic partnership between Cornell and the
Technion, and is tasked with pushing the boundaries of academia at Cornell
Tech. The Jacobs Institute is named for Dr. Irwin Mark Jacobs, Founding
Chairman and CEO Emeritus of Qualcomm, and his wife Joan Klein Jacobs, who
donated $133 million to create the Institute in 2013. The Institute has
attracted top talent to its faculty, and is part of one of the strongest security and privacy
groups in the world. Through a partnership with AOL, the Institute has advanced groundbreaking collaborative research
with researchers from Jacobs Institute, Cornell Tech, Technion and AOL, at its
AOL Connected Experiences Lab. Since the announcement of the Technion-Cornell
historic partnership in 2011, the Institute recruited faculty, Ph.D. students
and post-docs, initiated the Runway startup postdoctoral program to
commercialize innovative, deep research, opened Masters programs, graduated its
first cohort of Connective Media students this year, and will be home to over
50 Masters students — in Connective Media and Health Tech — in the coming academic year.

About Cornell Tech

The Jacobs Institute is a key
component of Cornell Tech. Cornell Tech develops pioneering leaders and
technologies for the digital age. Cornell Tech brings together faculty,
business leaders, tech entrepreneurs, and students in a catalytic environment
to produce visionary results grounded in significant needs that will reinvent
the way we live in the digital age. Cornell Tech’s temporary campus has been up
and running at Google’s Chelsea building since 2012, with a growing world-class
faculty, and about 150 master’s and Ph.D. students who collaborate extensively
with tech-oriented companies and organizations and pursue their own start-ups.

Construction is underway on
Cornell Tech’s campus on Roosevelt Island, with a first phase due to open in
2017. When fully completed, the campus will include 2 million square feet of
state-of- the-art buildings, over 2 acres of open space, and will be home to
more than 2,000 graduate students and hundreds of faculty and staff.